Asia-Pacific information privacy briefing 07.ppt

Asia-Pacific information privacy briefing ‘07 Graham Greenleaf Professor of Law, UNSW Asia-Pacific Editor, PLB International Newsletter Menu - December 11 2007 National laws … Australia Japan South Korea Hong Kong New Zealand … and proposals Taiwan Thailand China (PRC) Philippines … and the others Regional developments APEC Framework APEC ‘Pathfinders’ Other agreements APPA (Asia-Pacific Privacy Authorities) Regional NGOs Finding the law WorldLII Privacy Law Library EPIC’s PHR 2006 Australia (I): Legislation and case law Information privacy legislation No significant case law under federal Privacy Act WA legn 2007; Only Qld SA do not have information privacy Acts covering govt. information EU ‘adequacy’ still uncertain - expert report to EU Commission 2005, updated 2006; no decision yet Common law developments uncertain: Doe v ABC [2007] VCC 281 $234K damages by District Ct - on appeal Statutory privacy tort under consideration by both federal and NSW law reform Commissions Australia (II): Election implications Rudd Labor govt. sworn in 1 December Access Card’/ ID Card is dead Office of Access Card already shut down Letter telling all contractors to cease work New Information Commissioner Will combine FOI and privacy, with 3 Commissioners Privacy Branch of A-Gs has already been transferred to PM’s Dept. Australia (III): ALRC review of federal laws Australian Law Reform Commission Discussion Paper 72, Sept 2007 Major reforms proposed within existing structure APEC Privacy Framework largely ignored One set of ‘Uniform Privacy Principles’ (UPPs) for both private sector and federal public sector; likely to then be adopted by State public sectors Considerable strengthening of enforcement, particularly in allowing appeals to the Courts Credit reporting strict regulation will largely continue: no ‘positive reporting’; segregated data Australia (IV): New elements in the proposed UPPs Broad approach to ‘personal information’ retained Anonymity Principle to include